A parent cooperative for young children

May 2011

I can’t believe it’s May already – it still feels like March! The last couple of months of school are going to be very busy. We have a number of fieldtrips coming up and Sibling Night this month and next month will be an ice cream social and graduation. Hopefully we’ll finally see some warmer weather!

Don’t miss our last parent meeting on May 9th at 6:30. We’ll talk about some end of school events – family ice cream social, community yard sale, and graduation. We’re also looking for a couple of people who would be willing to run the parent meetings next year. Let me know if you think you’re interested.

Sibling Night will be Wednesday, May 18th and Thursday, May 19th from 6:30-7:30 pm. This is a time when your child can bring their siblings (yes, all of them) to school with them. Parents do need to stay at this event, but it’s lots of fun. We will have a special project, snack and playground time.

Fieldtrips: This month we’ll be hiking to the falls with both classes; Thursday, June 12th and Wednesday, June 18th. On those days, we’ll meet at the central pavilion near the boat launch to begin, but return to the playground after the hike. Parents and siblings are welcome to join us. We are also planning a farm visit. Edith has invited us to her family farm on May 25th, and we’re hoping to visit Billie’s “mini-farm” sometime this month also.

Community Yard Sale: TCNS is planning to participate in the community yard sale on Saturday, June 11th. This is a great chance to go through your attics, basements, and garages and hoe out! Combat your hoarding and benefit TCNS at the same time! We’ll begin collecting the week before the sale. We could use a couple of people to help sort and price stuff on Friday, and a couple of people to help collect money on Saturday.

May Activities: We have a lot of nature themes this month, from butterflies and birds to salamanders and farms. We’ll start the month by reading a classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. We’ll do our own Eric Carle paper and artwork, build caterpillars, and talk about the life-cycle of a butterfly. Next we’ll read a lovely book by Kevin Henkes, Birds. We’ll talk about different birds that we see, make different birds, paint with feathers, and set out nesting materials for birds on the playground. Our next book will be The Salamander Room by Anne Mazer. This is a great book to talk about different animal habitats and reptiles. We’ll also make a camouflage chameleon and make our own mini terrariums. The last full week in May we’ll read The Storm is Coming by Heather Tekavec. We’ll visit the farm this week, make salt dough animals and build a farm.

Terrific Two’s: Our Terrific Twos are glad to welcome spring! We have finished up April with assessments and conferences. Liz and I are so lucky to have such a wonderful group as our first class. Everyone is registered for next year, and the kids are looking forward to moving to the big classes downstairs. We will be visiting downstairs a couple times in May to get familiar with the space. We will continue talking about the changes happening around us in spring. Our big change in the classroom will be the addition of James and Sadie. We are very excited to have them join us. To start their welcome we will be reading Friends by Helme Heine. We will also be enjoying Over On The Farm, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Birds, The Eensy- Weensy Spider and The Surprise Garden. Look forward to beautiful spring artwork to be coming home to brighten your day!